Jim and I try and read the paper before work in the morning. I usually skim through and point out some highlights, and inevitably some obituary will catch my eye. I am usually drawn to read obituaries of local women who died in their 90s. Maybe I’m trying to learn their secrets.

One of the things that has caught my eye here in the Hudson Valley is how many of the old timers who pass have the same favorite hobby — going to yard sales. When I first started reading this, it jarred me. Is this really a hobby? What about gardening, writing poems, painting, woodworking, parcheesi? How can this be it? Sorting through other people’s stuff (some who have passed before you), only to pile up enough stuff that will be part of a future yard sale? My immediate reaction reminds me never to judge others because, come to think of it, it is one of my favorite pastimes here too!

Numbers vary: It isn’t a science, but some estimates claim that yard sales make over $4 million weekly in the U.S. And 690,000 people buy something at a yard sale each week. (I guess that averages $6 per person.) That’s a lot of people and a lot of stuff! The past couple of weekends have been busy yard sale times, and many of you have also probably been scanning local roads for neon-colored signs with faint letters promising treasures and deals.

Jim and I go to yard sales a lot. I pick up so many things, from jewelry and wall art to plant pots and kitchen equipment. I love a good bargain and I am a pack rat! Jim, on the other hand, is more measured. In nearly four years together, and probably at least 100 yard sales, he’s managed to only find three items he wanted: a skinny little rake for getting in between small shrubs, a heavy steel shovel and a brass piggy bank that reminds him of how people saved money when he was little. Yet, he still enjoys going. But why does he, and most of us, love this so much?

One reason may be that yard sales are a way to recognize the value of the past, which we don’t do in today’s fast-paced world. They connect new generations to older ones. I was in a consignment shop this weekend in Kingston and heard a 20-something talking about how she loves thinking about each item, the life it had before it arrived there and the person who wore it. More and more kids only wear vintage. As we get older, we also love grumbling about how things were better made back in the day, which is generally true for household items. I love finding a potato peeler that works better than all the new expensive ones. Jim takes steel over plastic any day.

Yard sales keep us green. We stay out of big box stores, with their bright lights, shiny plastic packaging and attempts to sell us things we don’t need or that immediately break down on us. It’s also nice to know that we are saving the stuff we buy from the dump, landfills and oceans. Instead, it’s being put back to good use.

One of our favorite things is that yard sales are about community. They lead to conversations with folks who have set aside time to sit on their lawn chairs and talk about the past. You may know them; if you don’t, you’ll see them again. Sometimes at yard sales, we start talking about our plant hobbies and get people to come to some of the Hudson Valley Plant Exchanges we organize. We may not have bought a fishing rod from a widow whose husband was a collector, but we sure spent time thinking about those old rods, sharing stories with her and hearing about her husband’s passion. For me, it was a creative moment, where I thought about what I would do with the old rods as someone who has never fished and probably never will. Curtain rods?

Another time, I stood and stared at a 1970s pattern couch for way too long, imagining how cool it would look somewhere (but not our place) while Jim chatted with the owner and realized he knew someone who knew someone who knew him. “I’m a local” is how he starts most of these conversations, and it leads to all sorts of nostalgic chats. One time, he said “I know you” to a lady hosting a yard sale and realized she worked the toll booth on the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge for decades. He remembered she was one of the nice ones. She appreciated being remembered at a job that has since been replaced by machines.

If we miss a few weekends of yard sale-ing, Jim will often say, “I miss going to yard sales with you.” Jim and my personalities flourish at these sales. My sense of wonder, interest in history and people and his knowledge of things and how they were used and where they come from can make for great connections and conversations. It often leads to us reconnecting. So, I guess next time we read an obituary about how an old-timer had a yard sale hobby, instead of wondering “is that enough?” we can think about how head-over-heels in love they and their spouses must have been.

Barbara Magnoni and Jim Rich are Kingston Wire subscribers and co-founders of the Hudson Valley Plant Exchange, living in Kingston. Rich is a coach and health teacher at Kingston High School.